Saturday, 23 June 2012

To celebrate the imminent arrival of the next edition of Warhammer 40k and to send off 5th edition in rollicking style, the lads at Games Workshop Liverpool kindly organized a night of Pizza and Apocalypse goodness for their customers to enjoy.

My activity on this blog was limited this week as i frantically painted up my Sanguinary Guard army so that i'd be able to take part with a mostly painted 1500 point army. Granted my chosen army resulted in only 22 models needing to be painted, but forty wings were a pain in the backside to get finished and even more of a pain keeping them glued on.

But enough of my problems, on with the photos. Apologies for some blurring, a sad combination of a not so great camera and drinking a few cans of pseudo-Red Bull to stay awake.

Rather impressively my Storm Raven took two full bursts from Vulcan Mega bolters wielded by those Warhounds before it plummeted to the ground in a fireball.

Monday, 11 June 2012

I've had a flick through the Flames of War rulebook, not quite enough to have learnt the rules - which are always best learnt through attempting to play - but enough to get the jist and to pass on my thoughts on the book itself.

First off in terms of layout and presentation, Flames sets the new standard. The book is full colour, photos on nearly every page, artwook everywhere. GW, Privateer Press et al all need to buck their game up if they want to match Flames.

Of particular note are these little boxes:

At the end of each rule description, there's a little summary box that restates the rules in bullet point form. This should be adopted by every wargame rulebook. How many times have you stopped in the middle of a game of 40k to go searching through a segment of the rules to find the key detail tucked away in the third paragraph? If your memory is as bad as mine, it'll be quite a few.These little summaries are ideal to speed up looking up rules and for clearly laying out rules.

With every rule segment, there is a full colour picture providing an example of said rule in action. Not strictly necessary, but it certainly looks nice.

Again rather than just a page of stat lines or special rules, each unit type is provided with a nice photo example of such a unit. It's a small touch but a nice one that really improves the overall presentation of the book.

But there is always a but.

While the presentation side of things is great, the rules are well laid out and easy to understand there is a fundamental flaw with the product. And that is how well it is put together.

Simply put its rather shocking that with a book that is otherwise above and beyond the expected quality that they would skimp so much on it's binding.

This is a sample page from the book. As you can see not only has glue seeped out onto the pages themselves, they are no longer properly attached. Literally within half an hour of reading through the book, the pages were beginning to fall out.

I know there are many on the interwebs that decry Games Workshop rule books as having terribly bound spines, but usually the pages only start to become detached with their products after several months of intensive use. This started after a brief flick through.

So overall i'm mostly impressed with the rulebook. But skimping out on the manufacturing side of things has left a sour taste. All the pretty pages in the world are of no benefit if the book falls apart in your hands.

Friday, 8 June 2012

I decided to treat myself with another item that i'll likely never use and ordered the Achtung! starter set for 'Flames of War'.As i've said before i'm not a historical wargamer or modeller by any means. My dice rolling experience is strictly limited to the skull infested battlefields of the Warhammer world and the Grim Darkness of the Far Future that is Warhammer 40k, with a few all too brief diversions into the steam powered punching of Warmachine.

So this is rather new to me. Any historical wargamers out there please forgive me for any hugely incorrect statements i make about WWII and it's forces as i unbox the game i shall likely never play that is 'Flames of War'.

A quick look at the outside of the box. Some nice artwork on the front and a comprehensive list of what you're getting inside.

What every wargamer likes to see, a box jam packed with books and sprues.

The two sets of tanks come on the familiar plastic sprues in two bags. Which for a novice like me is handy as it'll avoid me glueing a Sherman turret onto the tracks of a StuG by mistake.

*Pudgy fingers not included.

One of the StuG sprues. While not filled with extras like the average Games Workshop sprue, there are a few bits of baggage i can see. And the tank itself shows a nice bit of detail, especially considering its smaller scale.

The rulebook and a small bag of dice and oddly enough magnets. I presume that these are for magnetising components on the tanks. Should be interesting as i've not used magnets in any models i've built before.

And last but not least a shot of the innards of the rulebook. All of which is full colour with plenty of example diagrams for the rules.I've not read the rules yet so i'll have to review them later, but all in all its a nice little starter set that provides everything one needs to start 'Flames of War'. So colour me impressed so far.

Sunday, 3 June 2012

I've not gotten anything finished to stick on here, so i figured i'd show the denizens of the interwebs a few models that got me back into regular painting after a pretty long slump.

Assembled and painted by my friend J, they're of a historical nature. This is a side of the wargaming/modelling hobby i've never really delved into beyond a rather brief attempt at painting a few airfix miniatures. I'm no expert, but that's a cool looking tank. His tank painting skills, unlike mine, are pretty well developed. Nice smooth coats and finishes, whereas my own tend to reveal brush strokes at every turn.

J's been posting these up on his facebook profile for a while, which in turn led me to stick some of my own kits online and got me to pick up a brush again to keep up.

I've even taken a look at a few Flames of War kits to maybe venture into historical gaming myself. Although given i have a hard enough time getting in a game of Warhammer and 40k these days, unless i find an opponent it'll likely remain a pipe dream. J sadly has proven remarkably resistant to my attempts to pester him into taking up the wargaming side of things.

Saturday, 2 June 2012

This week i felt like showing my Dark Eldar a little bit of love. They've been sat in a box for quite a while now, in fact some are still sitting on a their sprues, unpainted and unloved. So i dusted off the box and started work on getting a Baron Sathonyx "counts-as" done since i still intend to field a Hellion based army.

The Beggar King, The Blade Itself, Daemoncursed, the leader of the Flying Polyps is known by many names. His origins are a mystery to all. He arrived unnannounced in the gang's territory deep in the bowels of the Dark City. His first action was to kill the gangs leader and seize control for himself.

He's made from a standard Hellion, with a bit of cutting done to his skyboard and some greenstuff hair added.

None have seen his face. Some whisper that he is a disfigured and disgraced Archon, others that he is some fiendish experiment of the Haemonculi escaped from their flesh pits. Some even whisper that he is a deranged clone of Vect himself. The Beggar King provides no answers to those that ask, save the kiss of a knife.

He's not quite finished yet, some details need work but hey at least he now exists in non sprue form.

Since i've had a particularly crap couple of weeks, along with this weekends releases that i'm sure everyone is aware of, i decided to treat myself too. Which led to this addition to my army:

Under his leadership the gang has vastly expanded their territory, absorbing numerous groups, including several Scourge flocks and a wing of Razorwing fighters. They have become ever more common sights in the raids against the lesser races of the galaxy.None of their warriors ever set foot upon the ground of a prey world, always remaining mounted on their skyboards or aflight upon their augmented wings.

Yup it's a Razorwing fighter. I don't have armies able to use the three new fliers released this weekend, so it was a choice between a Storm Raven or a Razorwing when i felt that flyer itch.It's not quite finished yet, i still need to decide and paint its armaments and choose which missiles i'll be using. But i'm quite pleased with how it looks so far. It took a heck of a lot of stippling but i think it was worth it.

I've had a flick through the Flames of War rulebook, not quite enough to have learnt the rules - which are always best learnt through at...

Regular Opponent(s) Wanted!

I'm currently looking for regular opponents for any of the Games Workshop systems and possibly those produced by other companies (assuming you can handle the fact i'd be a complete noob) in the Merseyside/Wirral area. If you're stuck for someone to play then drop me a line through the blog!

About Me

His name is but a whisper on the lips of believers and Holy men.To the lost tribe of Czukay he is known as The Shadowdweller.Yet others call him Uhuluuhullurra in the Old Tongue.The Daleks name him the Oncoming Drizzle.Some even refer to him as Cillit Bang.The 456 know him only as The 789.To most he is known as...Spider-Pope.